Deborah Pain

I am a passionate about the natural world and have been fortunate to be able to spend my career working in conservation science and management. I started as an environmental chemist and carried out my D.Phil. at Oxford University investigating the biochemistry of lead poisoning in birds. Since 1983 this has remained one of my key research interests. Key activities to which my research on lead from ammunition has contributed have been:
• As scientific coordinator of an IWRB international workshop on lead poisoning in waterfowl in 1991
• As a member of the UK Lead Ammunition Group, initiated by Defra and the Food Standards Agency to advise on key risks from lead ammunition and possible solutions
• As a member of the UK REACH (chemicals regulation) Independent Scientific Expert Pool (RISEP) and the Challenge Panel on Lead in Ammunition, advising the Health and Safety Executive on its scientific opinion
• As an invited expert by the European Environmental Bureau at European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) risk assessment and socio-economic analysis committee meetings when assessing ECHA’s restriction report on lead ammunition and fishing weights under EU REACH.

After my D.Phil. I worked at the Station Biologique de la Tour du Valat in the Camargue, France, on lead poisoning in waterbirds and raptors, and in other areas of ecotoxicology and behavioural ecology. I subsequently spent 16 years at the RSPB setting up and managing their international research unit. This involved working collaboratively with BirdLife partner organisations in Europe, Africa and Asia on conservation science projects ranging from the impacts of climate change and agricultural policy on birds, to the recovery of globally threatened species, including Asian vultures. From 2008, I spent 10 years as Director of Conservation at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) overseeing conservation work in the UK and overseas, primarily along the East Asian-Australasian and Northwest European flyways, and in Madagascar. This included projects on the Critically Endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper and Madagascar Pochard.

I am currently an independent conservation scientist, an Honorary Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of East Anglia and a visiting academic in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge. I sit on the Darwin Expert Committee and the Darwin Plus Advisory Group. These are committees of the Darwin Initiative and Darwin Plus competitive grants schemes under the UK Government’s Biodiversity Challenge Funds, aimed at conserving biodiversity and safeguarding the environment for local people.